Truth in Reporting - the heading should be "Canadians pay more for social benefits (including health and education) and public infrastructure (roads, bridges, sewers, water, hospitals and such) than for food, shelter, and clothing combined’ because that is where the bulk of our taxes go. Seen in that light, it looks reasonable.

This may be true for the top 25% income earners, who only have to pay a fraction of their income for food, shelter, and clothing, and the bulk of it goes to investing to grow their wealth. Their taxes should be the main expense of their income.

Definitely not true for the bottom 25%, whose income goes predominantly towards food, shelter, and clothing, with very little left for anything else, and taxes a very small part of their expenditures.

Yet the Fraser Institute only sees the world through the eyes of the entitled rich.

The article doesn’t state what it means by “average”, but given that the income figure it sees as “average” is north of $120000, I’d bet it’s looking at mean and not median. Which means their data is skewed by a few high earners and automatically worthless.

(That’s completely aside from the fact that paying taxes isn’t losing money; it’s funding road maintenance, clean drinking water, firefighting, and all those other services everyone, even the rich, needs and uses.)

Fraser Institute

Fraser Institute

Fraser Institute

Rephrased, Canadians only need to spend 35% on living essentials; down from 65%

I wonder what they get in exchange for those funds?

I must not be the average Canadian. My outgoing for housing is about 24%, but my payable tax st filing was about 15%